Chapter 370 (No need to subscribe to the chapter)

At the Trieste Royal Shipyard, Ernst personally took a look at the "Archduke Ferdinand", which was indeed a huge ship for that era.

Ernst himself didn't know much about ships, but he didn't have to worry about the Austrians fooling him. At the same time, the technicians of the Trieste Shipyard in Hechingen also participated in the supervision. This ship was Ferdinand's command ship in the future, and most people didn't dare to offend the emperor's brother. Seeing the Archduke Ferdinand taking shape quickly, Ernst was very satisfied and said, "Let's go!"

This time when Ernst went to East Africa, he brought a lot of things, including many of his collections in Hohenzollernburg, mostly antiques and cultural relics.

In Europe, Ernst picked up a lot of good things, all of which were cultural relics purchased from soldiers returning from Britain and France, especially calligraphy and paintings, which were things that foreigners could not appreciate. Moreover, calligraphy and paintings were less likely to be forged, and the West currently lacked such technical talent.

The "Admonitions of the Court Instructress" in Ernst's collection was bought for less than two shillings, which can be considered a "high price" purchase.

The British and French soldiers had no idea of ​​the value of the abundant cultural relics and sold most of them as trophies, but Ernst purchased them in bulk. He currently has more than 400 paintings alone.

There were even more books, a typical one of which was the Yongle Encyclopedia. Ernst had about 500 copies, all of which were bought by the kilogram.

However, Ernst's cultural attainments did not allow him to appreciate it very much, but he knew that anything that could flow out of the Old Summer Palace and the Forbidden City would be good.

Most of the French cultural relics fell into Ernst's hands, thanks to the internationalist spirit of the people in the old revolutionary base areas.

Compared with the British army, which was accustomed to expeditions, invasions and plunder, the French army, which also returned home "triumphantly", received quite different "treatment" at home.

On the one hand, most French domestic newspapers and media are happy to publicly disclose the "trophies" obtained from the Old Summer Palace. Relevant information is everywhere, and the "inside stories" of these "trophies" and this war of aggression emerge from time to time.

On the other hand, a considerable number of French people felt ashamed and angry about the looting by the French army and therefore denounced it. Among them, the most famous criticism came from the famous French writer and literary giant Victor Hugo, who called the Old Summer Palace "China's Versailles + Louvre + French National Library", an incomparable treasure of human civilization, and the actions of the French commander General Montauban, the looter, were an atrocity that destroyed human civilization and an ugly act that brought shame to France.

Regarding the "trophies" looted from the Old Summer Palace, public opinion in France was divided and confronted, and the resulting social impact was also divided.

On the one hand, newspapers and periodicals continued to report in depth on information from all sides, leaving behind a large number of historical documents with content that is of great research value.

On the other hand, French officers and soldiers who returned home one after another sold their "trophies" at auctions for cash, unwilling to keep these controversial "souvenirs" any longer. As a result, a large number of auctions and auction catalogs appeared.

Ernst took the opportunity to buy a batch of them, but most of them were Qing Dynasty utensils. However, these fancy things were actually not in line with Ernst's aesthetic taste.

Especially enamel, which was not only loved by the Qing court but also by foreigners. However, Ernst felt that it was not as good as the Ru kiln in his hands.

Moreover, the price of this thing is much higher than that of Ru kiln. Ernst found that the more fancy the cultural relics were at the auction, the higher the price.

Objects that were made according to ancient Far Eastern aesthetics and were relatively plain and simple were less valued by the British and French robbers.

Because now they really don't know the value of things. There are only some who do know the value of things, and they are the Japanese who took advantage of the situation. However, the Japanese did not buy many cultural relics from Britain and France at this time and space. Most of them were taken away by the Heixingen Bank.

In history, Japan took away 1,879 boxes of cultural heritage from the Far East from 1931 to 1945 alone. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Japan's own statistics showed that it took away 3.6 million cultural relics from the Far East, not including the "trophies" inherited by the descendants of Japanese war criminals from their ancestors.

The Tokyo National Museum also houses a large number of Chinese calligraphy and painting works, including "Li Bai Wandering", "Snowy Landscape", "Sixth Patriarch Cutting Bamboo", and Wang Xizhi's authentic "Seventeen Posts"... Japan even openly included these national treasures in their 150th anniversary commemorative exhibition. This dog-like nation of Japan will never be redeemed.

…

"You must handle these paintings and calligraphy with care. Also, send someone to patrol the ship regularly every day to prevent rats from chewing on these works of art."

The subordinate said with shame: "Your Highness, don't worry, the mice will not have nothing to do and attack the iron box."

"You're right, but we still have to be careful. Many of the things in there are going to be put in museums, and if they get damaged, it will ruin the appearance."

In addition to antiques, the most important thing Ernst brought was books, a total of 30,000 sets, to fill the empty National Library. The National Library was not built in the first town, but in the newly built city "Soga".

In terms of culture, East Africa as a whole is rather indifferent. It seems that due to inertial thinking, East Africans do not like to read very much, even the Germans who have received compulsory education are the same.

After all, compulsory education is an obligation, not a right for Germans. The original purpose of universal compulsory education was to train qualified soldiers and citizens who are loyal to the emperor and patriotic.

Ernst himself didn't care much about this matter. As adults, their thinking was fixed, and Ernst was happy for these people's thinking to remain unchanged. Besides, the audience of the Soga National Library were not ordinary people.

(End of this chapter)